Wellington election key to vacant land's future

Candidate forum takes up plot on U.S. 441

Depending on who's elected to the Village Council on Tuesday, the vacant land Wellington owns on U.S. 441 could become a business center, a university or maybe houses.

Candidates for the council suggested those ideas Thursday night at the last candidate forum before the election. Only a handful of people, most of them gadflies or people with political connections, turned out for the forum, which was sponsored by the Palms West Chamber of Commerce.

Among the candidates for Seat 4, which has no incumbent, both Howard Coates and Timothy Shields said they'd want to bring a university campus to the site, perhaps a satellite of Florida Atlantic University or Palm Beach Community College. And both wanted to use public-private partnerships to limit the cost to the village.

"I don't see building a very large, expensive complex that would be very expensive to maintain," Shields said.

But Seat 4 candidate Matt Willhite said he wanted to keep the land for parks, potentially partnering with the county to build a facility. Candidate Fred Van Dusen dodged the question.

"How would I pay for that?" he mused. "That's always a good one."

Mayoral candidate Darell Bowen said he thought the land was better suited for something other than a park, but he wanted to compensate by creating a park elsewhere. Mayor Tom Wenham said he'd keep the land for ball fields. And both Seat 1 candidates, incumbent Carmine Priore and challenger Duane Christensen, said they'd support luring companies to the site.

Priore and Christensen sparred over whether the council was using tax dollars for self-promotion through advertisements and mailers.

Christensen pointed out several full-page color ads the village paid for in the Palms West Almanac and a publication by the Palms West Chamber of Commerce.

"There are two places on these other four pages where the council's picture is shown. I think that's excessive. It's wrong," he said, holding up the magazines. "In the corporate structure, if people are using company money for self-promotion, they're shown the door."

Priore countered that Wellington used its publications to keep its residents in the know.

"The purpose was to provide people with information about everything going on in the village," he said.

Budget cuts were also a hot topic, but the candidates struggled to name specific things they would slice off the bottom line. Priore hinted that recreation programs might have to take a hit.

"Our community is accustomed to having a very, very luxurious recreation program," he said. "I think the only places we have to cut are within our system, administratively, and within the programs we provide this community."

Most of the candidates said they'd look for cuts in village administration. But Coates said he'd look at cutting the legal budget and the planning and zoning department.

Bowen said he'd reduce legal fees, the information technology budget and the $1 million budget for the council.

"That seems like a lot of money to me," he said.

Stephanie Horvath can be reached at smhorvath@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6643.